Style Icon Series: Penelope Cruz

Ok, so possibly not known for her edgy fashion-forward choices, but I've always thought Penelope Cruz is stunning. I like the fact that she's not usually into making huge statements with her clothes, she just sticks to classy, classic clothes and makeup. She really reminds me of a modern day Sophia Loren, and just as beautiful.

This grey number is something I'd wear! I don't know what designer it is, but I can guess from the photo that she wore it while promoting Volver (which I still haven't seen, but mean to).

This is one of her more daring outfits (for the red carpet, it's pretty tame, but I really dislike it when women wear these really stupid dresses) but it's still quite classic and it doesn't date.

Being a spokesperson/model for L'oreal means she has a barnet to envy, and boy does she! Her hair is probably my favourite thing about her. Who wouldn't want locks like that! I'm sure that for a normal person like you or I, it'd be a nightmare to style but with the team of people she has pretty-ing her everyday, I'm sure it's easy for her!

Sorry this is a day late, I spent the day practicing the piano yesterday, and totally forgot it was Wednesday and I had to post something! There will be yesterday's outfit post too coming later today.

Currently listening to: Time after Time by Cyndi Lauper.

Hope you're all having a lovely day!

Valentino, my love.

Today, I really felt the need to get out of the house alone. As much as I love my family, I'm itching to get back to uni life and spend some time alone, with total freedom. Sigh. Anyway, so I went out for a few hours into town, sat in the park with a Starbucks while being rained on by a fountain and some stray gusts of wind (Nemesis No.2, don't you know), caught up with a friend whose been away for what feels like ages, and did some browsing of some shops.

Here's what I wore, firstly (get the boring stuff out of the way first!):

Brown blouse from H&M & a basic black pencil skirt, I also wore some brown heeled sandal things (first outing with heels since the Op, people!)

Here's a close up detail of the blouse. Pretty in't it. Its colour also makes me looked really tanned, which is weird, cause I'm pretty pale in comparison to my usual Summer-glow. (I'm trying to go for the pale and interesting, instead I end up looking like a normal English person who doesn't tan, yuck).

Anywhoo, I needed some moisturiser, so I popped into Boots and spent more than I intended, as is normal for me & that shop:

(My paws were shaking at the excitement of telling you about the next 2 things, hence the fuzzy photo)

I then popped into TK Maxx to look at their homeware stuff (I know, I'm middle-aged already) and went via their scarves. I found these beauties:

A Moschino 100% silk scarf for £15!!!!! It's not even Cheap & Chic, it's actual Moschino. Wowza. I continued looking, in the hope of finding another nice silk scarf (I spend so much money on them, but they remind me of The Best First Lady Ever: Jackie Kennedy).

I stumbled across this:

Okay, so it's not as impressive looking as the Moschino one, but it's Valentino. The label said current season, but I can't for the life of me find it anywhere on the internet, so I don't know whether that means it's A/W10 or S/S10. But, who cares, it's Valentino!!!

Usually, I'm not one for labels at all, if I can find the same thing cheaper sans label, then I will just buy that, my pride doesn't care about such things, as long as it's pretty. However, something went off in my head at the discovery of these 2 scarves. I don't think I'll ever become a label addict, but a few nice pieces are always worth it, and let's face it, silk scarves never go out of fashion. My life is complete, and my scarf collection is growing and my bank balance is getting closer to the red every time I leave the house!! :/

Anyway, I hope you're all having a good day!

Currently listening to: Waltzinblack by The Stranglers.

PS. It's my birthday soon, and I'm stuck with ideas as to what to do to celebrate, any suggestions??

A few days in London Town

So, I got back from London Thursday evening (having had spectacular delays on the train. It takes 1 1/2 hrs usually, and we caught the 1.30 train and got back at 6. Yeah, I know. sigh) Anyway, since then I've been catching up on other things, so haven't had a chance to do much blogging, so for that I apologise. Also, blogger has the tendency to unorder my photos whenever I upload them, so they're all out of order! I'll put captions underneath each one, so that you can follow what's going on. Also, just so you all know in advance, I'm the most terrible photographer, so don't expect art, sorry!

This is the street where we stayed, you could see the Covent Garden Plaza out of the front windows of the flat. However, I wouldn't recommend you actually use these flats (there were 3, all the same that they owned), because we had so many problems with them! They've ended up giving us a large (ish) amount in compensation, just so you know how bad it was! Anyway, onto the photos in no order at all:

This is my brother, dad and myself on the first night (we all photograph terribly together don't we) before we went to see Avenue Q. More on that later :)

This is James and I on our first afternoon in the Covent Garden Plaza. I could just sit there all day, it's really lovely, just have a cup of coffee and people watch all day!

We went for a bit of a wander around the shops etc nearby, and here's a mugshot my mum took of me...I look so grumpy in all these photos, I promise I'm not!!

James & I outside the new Apple store, he was so excited by it, he's a total Apple fanatic!

This is night 2. My Dad and I went to the Proms (yay!) I was thrilled by this. We saw the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra play Mahler's 3rd Symphony, probably one of myfavourites of his! I'd never been inside the RAH either, so this was a double honour for me, as it's a dream to play there one day!

This is day 2 in the V&A, this is one of the chandeliers inside the restaurant. The V&A (Victoria and Albert) is my favourite museum in London, for definite. I can spend all day just wandering around all the exhibitions, I have spent weeks in there probably with all the time I spend there. And I always donate on my way in. It's free, but I always feel as though you should pay some money whenever you go in, because the stuff in there, albeit priceless, deserves to be looked after as well as possible and that costs money, unfortunately.

A cool sculpture of an elephant outside, made entirely of wood. This is the back, I didn't get the front, because as you can see it's full of people and wouldn't have looked very nice haha.

I love these flowers, they were everywhere outside in the V&A garden/courtyard bit, I've forgotten what they're called but I love the colours and how big their flowers are

Possibly one of my favourite sculptures at the V&A. We didn't manage to stay for long because we had to get back to eat dinner in time for our Prom (squee!) but this one really caught my eye. I can't say I know anything about art/sculpture, I just know what catches my interest, I think this is beautiful.

The courtyard outside the V&A, you can see the wooden elephant in the far left corner. I think the building is beautiful, you don't think that when you see it from the outside on Exhibition Rd!

Mug shot while sitting down with a coffee.

The amazing glass chandelier in the entrance hall. The last time I went with the whole of my family was the year this was installed, there was such a fuss about it, now it's just treated as part of the furniture. However, I am always in awe everytime I walk underneath it.

Another chandelier, this time from the Wyndham Theatre on our first night for Avenue Q.

You weren't supposed to take photos of the stage or even in the theatre, but I did it sneakily, I didn't feel as though it was going to do anyone any harm!

If you haven't seen Avenue Q, and you get the chance, take it! It's the 2nd time I've seen it (I last saw it when it first came out about 4 years ago), and it was even funnier this time round. Our tickets weren't that expensive either, even though we were very high up, we still had a good view. The muppets are so cute, and the actors are very talented in the way they act through the muppets, but also act themselves. And it's very un-PC, which makes it even funnier!

We also walked past quite a few of Boris' Bike stands. Quite a good idea I think, hopefully it will be a success like the Velib in Paris, and actually stay this time!

In other news, this happened to my chair as soon as I got back!! :

So I had to buy a new one. Instead, my parents let me use one of their old Windsor chairs from the loft. It's really pretty, and I'm sure it'll creep into a few pictures soon :)

Hope you're all having a good weekend, sorry for the picture heavy post, but I hope you all enjoyed a little glimpse into my mini break!

Currently listening to: 99 Luftballons by Nena.

Style Icon Series: Esmeralda

Ok, so maybe you'll all think I'm crazy having chosen a Disney character as a style icon, but who didn't love Esmeralda when this film first came out?? I was 6 when this film came out, and remember being so excited by it. I even wore the video tape of it out because I watched it so much! Being a little bit older now, I can see the flaws in the story that Disney produced; don't you kind of feel sorry for Quasimodo at the end, being 'dumped' by Esmeralda for the rather 2D but typically-handsome Pheobus? I haven't read the book, but intend to get round to it at some point (as with many things). Anyway, there isn't really much to talk about regarding her clothes, makeup, accessories or anything much, because she really on has 2 outfits throughout the whole film! This red number and the purple & white one below.

The red number's probably my favourite, partly because I'm a red person, but also for all the stuff that comes with it - who wouldn't want a pretty gold crown and a magic scarf thing that allows you to disappear with a poof of smoke?!

I also love her hair! But most Disney leading ladies have some fabulous hair which us non-animated people could never hope to achieve! Oh to be animated, eh?

I also love her goat (whose name has totally escaped me, but I had a fluffy toy of him, adorable!!) I would love to have a goat like that as a pet, that followed me around everywhere, a bit like a dog but with less walking?

Anyway, if you haven't seen the film (shame on you!!) then I really recommend that you watch it, it's probably quite cheap on Amazon, being relatively old if you want to buy it. And it's also on TV around Christmas most years too. To be honest, I don't watch it for the clothes, I watch it for the reminiscence and generally just being lazy and not having to think. Feel good film :)

Currently listening to: Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe/Newswipe Playlist on Spotify. SO good. It's got everything from Roots Manuva to Donna Summer to John Williams' Imperial March from Star Wars on it!!

Hope you're all having a good weekend, I'll hopefully do the London post this evening or tomorrow :)

Friend Friday: Blogger Privacy

Katy from Modly Chic has a weekly feature where she asks questions which are pertinent to bloggers. This week she talks about Privacy. Here are the questions she asked and the answers I've given:

1. Do you think privacy is something we should think about as bloggers?

Privacy is definitely something that we should be aware of on the internet in general. It can be easy to just bury your head and not realise that there could be all sorts of trolls hanging around the internet!!

2. Do you use a pen name or your real name? What was behind that decision?

I use my real name, but only my first name. It's a fairly common name, so it's not going to be particularly easy to track me down with just that on its own. If I get to know a blog friend a bit better I would add them on facebook, but I'd rather not that everyone knew my whole name, it opens all sorts of worries and questions!!

3. How much personal information do you reveal about your life outside the blog?

I reveal some stuff, but not too much. I hope enough to keep things fresh, but I'm still quite new to this blogging business! I generally keep to the rule that I don't blog or talk about anything that I wouldn't feel comfortable talking to a total stranger that I met 5 minutes ago. (Of course I think it's a partly generational thing, because my grandparents think I reveal far too much about my life on the internet!)

4. What will you never reveal?

I will never reveal things about my private life or, as I said above, something I wouldn't be prepared to reveal to a total stranger. Particularly in the internet culture of constantly being connected to other people via our phones or similar, makes it very easy to slip into revealing all sorts of things about ourselves, sometimes mundane, and sometimes just a bit too much...

5. As bloggers we have, to an extent, made ourselves 'public figures'. But there are still things that are intimate to each of us that does not need to be known by anyone that stumbles across your blog. How do you determine what is appropriate for public consumption and what is private to you?

I guess I've kind of already answered this question, but I only ever write about things that I would tell a total stranger. That way I know I'm 'safe' in my own little way.

I hope this all made sense. What do you think about blogger privacy issues??

Currently listening to: Sweeny Todd Original Broadway Cast Recordings.

Links of the week

Sorry I haven't been posting as much this week, as the post below says, I've been in London for a few days and haven't had the time or opportunity to blog! Those of you who follow me on twitter will have seen a few tweets here and there, but I've just been too busy to sit down and tweet! I will post a few pictures of my break and do this week's style icon over the weekend when I have more time, but for now here is this week's links roundup (a bit shorter than normal, sorry!)

• Mademoiselle robot tells us what she thinks about the new film 'Coco & Igor'. I'm actually quite excited about this film because it encompasses 2 of my favourite things: Chanel and Stravinsky! It comes out on 6th August over here, (ooh, that's today!!) so I will endeavour to see it soon, because I don't think it will be a big box office smash so it might not be around for long!
• How to tie a scarf from Wikifashion. Useful little thing, especially because I never know really what to do with my ever-expanding collection of silk square scarves! I really want to try out the 'Grace', but it could be tricky to do without looking like a granny...!
• 'On Glamourising Vintage life': We're asked whether we consider the context of our sartorial choices. Personally, I think as much as fashion is influenced by its society one can look at them both separately. The same with art and music too. I think you can choose whether you want to contextualise it. However, I do disagree with glamourising the hardships of people in any way.
• I rather love Gala Darling and her intrepid playgirls idea. This particular beauty from her site: A Gossip Girl on acid style guide
• College Fashion tell us what their modern classics are. Do you agree?
• Why won't Chanel or the rest of the fashion industry talk about their new plus sized ranges?
• Elle UK asks what our obsession with nail varnish says about our society.

Any comments on these? Please let me know! Hope you enjoy them!

Brief Break

I'm off to London 'til Thursday, so regular posting will be put on a brief hiatus until I'm back. I'm hoping to take loads of pictures so hopefully there'll be plenty of content for when I'm back, as well as the usual: Style Icon and Links of the week! Hope you're all having a lovely week!